LAUAC: When I'm Twenty Four
by Vanarella
Summary: Their friendship started with swings. It ended in betrayal. Regret started with attempted suicide. However, before he bulled him; he was his best friend and he was never far to reach just a few years ago... Semi-prequel to 'l'amore un'altra cosa' although can be read as a stand alone. Collection of childhood-themed oneshots/drabbles.


**::**

**When I'm 24**

**© Vanarella, 2014.**

**::**

* * *

He felt really pathetic. Really, really pathetic. Pathetic for not being able to swing himself on the swing. Pathetic for feeling hopeless. Weak. Dependent. Helpless.

... Stupid.

His grip tightened on the swing's ropes as he made a hopeless, terrible attempt to swing himself and only failing miserably as he was only swung a short millimeter. He whined and grumbled to himself, hitting his knees with small, balled fists as he stared at his feet, his large eyes burning with chagrin, self-hatred and humiliation although no one looked at him as they were busy immersed in making their horribly deformed snowmen with piddly amounts of snow.

From afar, another child figure, possibly only a few inches taller than him stared at him with curiosity reflected in his aquamarine eyes as he stared at the small boy failing to swing himself and watching his blue eyes sting with frustration. He blinked and felt pity for the boy and realized that he should try and befriend him, help him, instead feel piteous about the child.

Stuffing his small hands in his black coat, he made his way to the small boy, his footsteps making footprints in the snow as he glided his way to the boy. He stood behind him and felt the boy stiffen up as he felt his presence. With a shy smile, he patted the boy gently on the shoulder as he offered to push him.

"Nee," he started off, his voice soft and quiet as to not scare the boy he was trying to befriend. He turned around, lips slightly parted as he stared at him with puzzlement reflected in his eyes. "Do you want me to push you? I wanna swing, too."

First, his expression changed. Confusion. Bemused, and finally, happiness as he let a large smile take over his plump lips, his eyes immediately brightening. "Yeah, thanks!"

He smiled back earnestly and began to push the boy's back at a steady level, so he would be just a few centimeters off the ground. And then he flew, and swooped back and both of them felt somewhat happy and pleased as they knew that they were already automatic friends without asking.

**::**

"Okaeri, Gaku-chan!" His mother's voice greeted him warmly as he and his friend stepped into his cozy, warmly-lit house. He slipped off his gumboots and placed them outside, Kaito mirroring his actions. His mother rushed over to the doorway and Kaito looked at her; long purple hair, ending in curls as it splayed across her shoulders, bright green eyes, thick lashes and a tall figure. She was dressed in rugged jeans and an oversized brown jumper and she beared a warm smile.

"Oh, I see you've brought a friend over!" She said cheerfully as she crouched down to the boy's level, putting her hand on his small, dainty shoulder in a motherly way.

"Hello dear," she said kindly. "My name is Ayano, I'm Gakupo's mommy. What's your name, little one?"

He sneezed. "I-I'm Kaito."

"Oh, what pretty name you have! Oh, please come in! It's cold outside and our house is nice and warm!"

Gakupo smiled at him again as he took his little chubby hand clasped between his own. "Come, come! I've got lots of toys to play with, you know!" He said excitedly. Kaito nodded coyly as he nervously looked around.

"Achi!" He sneezed again, covering his faintly red-tipped nose with his hands.

"Oh, you look like you've caught a cold, dear!" Ayano said as she quickly gave him a tissue. "I'll make you some peppermint hot chocolate, okay? Just sit on the kitchen's stools and wait a bit, ne?" Kaito nodded nervously as he trailed Gakupo over to the kitchen and jumped up on the red kitchen benches and sat next to the young purplet.

"Mommy makes the best hot chocolate, you know? It's so yuumy!" Gakupo gushed cheerfully. "Oh, where's your mommy and daddy, Kai-chan?"

"They're at work so that's why I went to the park." He mumbled quietly.

"Oh! What does your mommy and daddy do?"

"My daddy is a lawyer and my mommy's a piano teacher and a writer."

Overhearing their conversation, Ayano perked up. "Won't your mommy and daddy worry of you're missing?"

"N-no, because they know I always go to the park and they don't come back until midnight. My babysitter doesn't come until six, though." For a six year old, the way he spoke was very polite.

"Hmmm... How about you stay here until six and we can drop you off, hm? I don't like the idea of you staying at home and I think you live quite near us."

"O-okay... Thank you." Ayano smiled back at him before tending to the kitchen again.

The teapot buzzed and Ayano deftly took some cocoa powder, peppermint, chocolate sprinkles and two pellucid glasses out of the drawers. She skilfully put a few teaspoons of cocoa powder I'm the glass, mixing in some peppermint and poured in the warmed milk, the white liquid filling up the glass. She stirred it, making sure the top was still frothy and creamy and sifted some sprinkles onto the glass before serving them to the two young kids expertly.

"Drink up!"

Kaito stared at the foreign liquid. Since his mother and father were always busy with work, he'd never had treats like this. He didn't whine about it though; at a tender, mettle age, he understood his parents were very busy so he tried to stay out of their way as much as possible. He clasped the warm glass between his hands and held it up to his lips, the warm liquid passing through as he was greeted with a bursting flavor exploding in his mouth.

It was...

_Really nice._

_Really nice to have a friend who cared. Really nice to have a friend who didn't tease you. Really nice to have a cheerful, bubbly friend. Really nice to have a nice, warm place when he was all alone and desolated._

And when the warmth spread through his whole body, he knew it just wasn't from the hot chocolate, but Gakupo himself.

* * *

**A/N: **Heyheyhey, amazing people who are viewing this story! This is just like a semi-prequel to L'Amore Un'Altra Cosa, except it's just stories of Gakupo and Kaito's childhood together. These are just a bunch of oneshots and don't platonically go to a story, but just random ages. I thought I'd start with the swings that was features in the prologue, but the oneshots happen randomly. For example, this oneshot was when Gakupo and Kaito were around five or six, but the next oneshot could be about when they're ten or something. Usually it comes with a theme, like this one is named 'Swings and Hot Chocolate'. You needn't read LAUAC to understand this, but you may notice some things that are mentioned in that story written there.

If you have any requests for a oneshot for 'When I'm 24' (totally not taken by 'When I'm 64' by Paul McCartney lelz'), please leave it in the reviews, but make sure the age range is about 6 - 14 as 14 was the age Gakupo started bullying him and 6 was when Kaito met him... Soo, yeah! It can be about anything, really. Sleepover, pets, school project, birthday, accidentally going on a porn website, whatever uvu

This is updated spontaneously and when I feel like writing something but not for my ore stories as those tend to happen... a lot.

Also, it's marked as 'complete' because I don't know when this'll end... It's not, though XDD

On my stories, I deleted 'This is Gospel' because I knew I was never gonna finish it at all, sorry. I will be updating 「 セレンヂピチ 」in about a few days, then hopefully MMLM, Ashes to Roses, Cubism and Harlot's Lament. I knew Ditsie told me to update Cubism quickly, but I'm kinda on a writer's block for that atm. I'll be rewriting the first two prologues of MMLM, and slavin— getting Ditsie to beta all the chapters so far (if that's alright with her, but I don't like reading my terrible stories haha orz), rewriting the prologue and summary of Harlot's Lament simply because I really hate it and then editing Cubism's first chapter for the gay and cheesiness... Whoo, so much editing to do.

Then I have to sort my files in Doc Manager. Really, it's so cluttered and crappy and I gave really shitty names to my files. For example, one file is named 'buttraep' and another is named 'nope', another 'neh' and some just weird gibber... Idk, I'm not a tidy person.

Thanks for reading, see you in the next instalment uvu *runs off to download Osu!*

- Vana


End file.
